Opinion

The county parks board sure knew how to celebrate July 4th this year, and we’re not talking about the fireworks show on Monday.

Its dedication on Sunday of bronze sculptures to honor Bobby Stratton’s contributions to the baseball programs – and youth – of Shelby County was, in our minds, a waist-high fastball right down the middle.

To commemorate this season of graduation, allow me to share this letter written to advice columnist Ann Landers.

Dear Ann Landers: I have two brothers – one just graduated from the University of Kentucky, and the other was sent to the electric chair. My mother lives in an insane asylum. Since I was 3 years old, my father has been a drug dealer. One of my sisters is a highly paid prostitute; the other is the mistress of a local businessman who has Mafia connections.

The year was 1950, and I was 19 years old, having just completed my sophomore year at the University of Kentucky, majoring in journalism. I was home for the summer, working on my hometown newspaper, TheGleaner, in Henderson.

Let me tell you first of all that working for a newspaper was not at all like newspaper work today.

Numerous state transportation officials came to Shelby County last week to talk about safety on Interstate 64. They rallied at the rest stop near Simpsonville to talk about the dangers that the highway and its drivers and construction workers are facing these days.

And though we realize workers standing alongside frustrated and crowded drivers can cause a verifiable hazard that requires all of our attention, we also see clearly where Cabinet officials are placing their collective weight.

In the April 2 edition of The Sentinel-News, my attention was drawn to a brief three-line snippet that was buried among other news items in "Looking Backward," the weekly feature that spans nearly a century of Shelby County doings.

"75 years ago, 1935 ... David Whittaker [sic], an eighth-grade student at Clark School, won the County Spelling Bee."

The Crusade for Children has been part of the calendar in Kentucky and an intransient icon in our memories for most of all our lives.

It was during the polio era in the early 1950s that the folks at WHAS in Louisville gave birth to a telethon fundraiser that seized those who viewed with its ability to generate dollars, its concept of community cause and its determination to dazzle us as well as move us.

The Shelbyville City Council took an unusual step at its recent meeting in passing a resolution in support of denying a liquor license for those who want to open what it called a “beer bar” at 616 Main Street.

For the council as an elected body to offer its opinions on what essentially is a private business matter might seem to some to be employing its collective power inappropriately.

The photo is grainy in that 1960s, take-your-film-to-the-drugstore kind of Kodachrome way.

But it is indelible in its image of a family enjoying time in a large body of water, the sort that drifts into the horizon, never to be seen again. Two little boys and their Mom and another family wade in the obviously warm and nearly knee-deep salt water, wonder on their faces and in their body language.

There is a wonderful new monument in our community that not all of you see.

It’s the new memorial to the Slaughter Massacre that has been under construction on U.S. 60 just west of Simpsonville.

Under the direction of a caring Shelby County native, Jerry Miller, a hardworking group has taken significant effort to memorialize the spot where a group of African-American soldiers were ambushed and killed in 1865.

Near the beginning of the comedic movie remake of Homer’s Odyssey, O Brother Where Art Thou? (which I unfortunately cannot recommend because it contains quite a bit of unnecessary profanity), the three main characters are divided over which of them should be the leader.

The first defiantly steps forward, points to his chest, and says, “I’m with yours truly!”